Burma Sentences Activists to 65 Years in Prison

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-11-voa11.cfm

By VOA News
11 November 2008

A court in Burma has sentenced at least 14 members of a well-known pro-democracy group to 65 years in prison.

Relatives and opposition political officials say the activists were sentenced Tuesday, during a closed hearing inside Rangoon's notorious Insein prison.

The dissidents are members of the 88 Generation Students, a group that organized anti-government demonstrations in August of last year to protest economic hardships and demand democratic reforms.

Those demonstrations led up to last year's pro-democracy protests that were later crushed by the country's military-ruled government.

The 88 Generation Students first began political activism 20 years ago when the group organized mass demonstrations to challenge the rule of Burma's military.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.